Brighton author explores the making of 'The Alamo'

John Wayne fan and author John Farkis shows a guest a Styrofoam block used during filming of explosions on the set of the John Wayne classic “The Alamo.” Farkis says that the faux blocks can be seen being tossed by special-effects pyrotechnics, simulating artillery hits on the structure of the Alamo.(Photo: ALAN WARD/LIVINGSTON DAILY)

Brighton retiree and film-history buff John Farkis took on an ambitious project when he decided to write a book about the making of 1960 American film classic "The Alamo."

Farkis found the behind-the-scenes story of John Wayne's self-produced directorial debut fascinating. He went about reconstructing the entire story of the making of the film, from preproduction through the premiere and beyond, and he picked up some impressive John Wayne memorabilia along the way.

The movie "The Alamo" tells the story of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, with Wayne starring as Davy Crockett.

"A lot of it is about John Wayne on and off screen, his personality and politics," Farkis said.

From conception to release, it took Wayne 14 years to finance, plan and make the movie, which was shot over the course of 83 days in Texas. Farkis noted that by the time the movie came out, "the world had changed a lot since Wayne started it, in 1946," he said.

"Wayne had strong patriotic beliefs, and he wanted a mechanism to share that," Farkis said. "My impression is that Wayne wanted to honor the people who had served in WWII, the message being honoring servicemen."

However, in the 1950s, "the world had changed, and there was a lot of revolt. The scope of the Wayne's film changed to more of a political message about threats, like communism," and other political issues of the day, Farkis suggested.

In all, "Wayne's film was a reminder of who we are and what we respect. It is universal, re-enforcing traits like courage and self-sacrifice," Farkis said.

Author John Farkis is shown with one of several black-powder replica rifles he has collected. The unit shown was specially modified to allow the firing of blanks in the movie “The Alamo,” featuring John Wayne. The ladder on wall in background was also used in filming of the movie, being one of the numerous ladders used by actors to scale the walls of the “The Alamo” in an attack scene.(Photo: ALAN WARD/LIVINGSTON DAILY)

In-depth research into the making of the film lead Farkis to write more than 1,000 pages, the original draft, which the publisher had him whittle down to closer to 600. Farkis conducted more than a hundred interviews with actors, editors, stuntmen and other people who worked on the movie.

Interviewing these people revealed to Farkis how much our memories can change over time.

"Sometimes I got conflicting stories from different people, because the details of memories can change after all those years," he said.

Researching thousands of documents, "from the day-to-day shooting schedule to the script to thousands of photo," helped Farkis figure out the who, what and where of it all.

"I tried to weave the interviews together with the research to create a narrative and find documentation to support whatever point I was making," Farkis said.

The Brighton-based author, who retired from Johnson Controls after 35 years, is not just an expert on the history of the movie. He is also a big-time John Wayne fan who collects memorabilia.

Farkis noted that he has contacted the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset, Iowa, to see if they would be interested in his collection. He will be there in May for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the museum's recent expansion.

The museum already sells a copy of Farkis' self-published book, "Alamo Village: How a Texas Cattleman Brought Hollywood to the Old West," which tells the story of the Brackettville, Texas, set.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTheWriter.